


I can give you this at least

by nekosd43



Series: Tumblr Requests [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, M/M, Memory Alteration, Multi, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 16:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12987951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekosd43/pseuds/nekosd43
Summary: Ungarmax asked: how about an au where taako and magnus were a thing during the stolen century and so lucretia left them together after the memory wipe?But there was one relationship that could be salvaged:  Taako and Magnus had met BEFORE the IPRE.  They had a fling in the year before they both applied.  There was something there that she could leave in tact.Taako and Magnus could stay together.





	I can give you this at least

**Author's Note:**

> I've wondered for a while how this au might happen, and I'm glad I finally managed to hammer something out! Thanks to Ungarmax for the prompt, I take prompts all the time over on my tumblr account, nd43taags! I'm trying to do more short stuff to fight off writer's block and can always use the inspiration!

She was so careful with her editing of their lives.

Lucretia knew that she was literally rewriting the fabric of her friends, and that  _ frightened _ her.  She spent many sleepless nights, trying to determine what was or wasn’t essential to everyone’s being.  Would erasing the First Church of Fungston and it’s followers steal Merle’s compassion and love for the world around him?  Would removing their afternoon performances at the conservatory, surrounded by well wishers and proud friends, steal Magnus’ kind creative spark that he worked so hard to nurture?  Would taking the fight with his sister over the fate of the spirits in the Capital City tower steal Taako’s growing empathy for others and close him off from everyone again?

Some things would be irreplaceable.  Captain Davenport would have to lose everything, there was no way around that.  She had tried, tried to snip away only the bare minimum of the captain’s connections to the mission, but there was still  _ so much. _  She did not know how he would fare when it was over.

Barry and Taako too, they would not be the same without Lup.  But as far as she could tell, Lup was  _ gone _ , and there was no way to know if she would ever return.  Was it better to spare them that pain of knowing she  _ was _ there, or to let them carry her weight?  And what if she  _ was _ still out there?  What if Lucretia made Lup forget herself in her attempt to  _ spare _ her loved ones?

She couldn’t think about that.

Merle couldn’t remember any of them.  He had taken them all in as his own weird children as a part of this mission, and there was no way Lucretia could cut those threads apart.  They were all too tightly wound together.  That meant having to separate him and the Captain, which broke her heart.  It was bad enough that Lup was gone, now the men who they had grown to view as fathers would lose their love too.

And Lucretia couldn’t deny she was  _ destroying _ the love among them. 100 years together meant you learned to grow close who you were with.  And they had, they had all loved each other so much.  But now they were a tangled web of relationships, one that would have been impossible to understand when they left home all those years ago.  They had lost Lup, and that had devastated Barry, but Lucretia had lost her lover too.  And Lucretia would also lose Magnus, who she had also fallen so deeply in love with.

But there was  _ one _ relationship that could be salvaged.

Taako and Magnus had met  _ before _ the IPRE.  It had been a small thing, interactions when they were younger, when Taako and Lup’s caravan would stop in Magnus’ neighborhood once a year.  They had history untouched by the mission.  Magnus had fallen for Taako hard the day they met, and Taako had followed when they met up again a year later.  They had four summers together, from Magnus’ adolescence to adulthood.  And they had a fling in that final year, the year before they both applied to the IPRE.  There was something there that she could leave in tact.

Taako and Magnus could stay  _ together _ .

They couldn’t have everything.  She would have to take many of their nights together on the ship, their dates on the deck of the Starblaster.  But they could keep the rings they hastily exchanged last year after the Light had been divided up.  And they would keep the memory of each other, smiling, as the other accepted them.

But they could stay together.

And that was something.

At dinner that night, she tried to focus on their hands entwined, Magnus’s fingers laced with Taako’s as they somberly ate.  Nobody spoke, they were so tired and so lost for how to continue, but there was still this.  This one small thing that she could save of their lives together.

She would save them.

Separating the two of them would be too much for Taako, she realized.  It was bad enough she was taking his sister.  That was going to be a huge part of his formative years.  She couldn’t leave him alone, to wander around a half of himself.

Magnus would be good for him.  Magnus would support him.

And Magnus couldn’t completely lose his support network.  He had grown so much, and taking that away might damage the maturity and strength he had gained.  He needed someone to be there, to hold him up when he was struggling.

Taako would be good for him.  Taako would support him.

They wouldn’t have to be alone.

In the glow of Fisher’s tank, she worked to redact the story of their romance, to leave only the necessities for them to stay together.  She fought back tears, wishing that she could do the same for everyone, leave them something to hold on to, but this would have to do.  Until she could bring them back.

Until they could all be together again.

* * *

 

The day of the Forgetting did not go as planned.  Barry had disappeared.  Daveport was inconsolable.  Merle was wandering around confused.  And Taako and Magnus…

She found them huddled together in Taako’s bed, holding each other with fear in their eyes.  grasping onto the only thing they recognized - each other.

“Where are we?” Magnus asked, sounding panicked in a way she never thought she would hear from the Chief Security Officer she loved.

“You’re okay,” Lucretia soothed, “Let’s get you both outside.”

Taako was crying, but Magnus was dutiful as he lifted his partner from the bed and carried him to the door.  Lucretia led them off the ship, all the while trying to focus Magnus’ attention away from the strange surroundings.

“You two are going to be fine,” she said, “I’m sure of it.  We just need to get you two back on the road.”

“But… where are we?” he repeated, “And who are you?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Lucretia answered, “I’m nobody important, just someone who was passing by.”

There was a caravan waiting for them.  It wasn’t much, just a bare-bones cooking wagon and a small cache of foodstuffs, but it was something they could have together.

“Here we go,” Lucretia said as Magnus laid Taako down in the back of the wagon on a blanket.  “Safe and sound.”

“What happened to us?” Magnus asked.

“There was… there was a storm,” Lucretia answered, “You and your husband went into… a mine to try and wait it out, but there was some sort of natural gas and you both fell ill.  I found you and brought you back to my… home.”  She didn’t feel convinced by this lie, but Magnus was half there as it was.  His mind was full of holes that it was eager to plug up with any explanation.  “I think you two are okay to head out again though.”

“Where were we going?” Magnus asked.

“I think you said Neverwinter when we spoke last night,” she lied.  “Do you remember that?  You two were going to start a new life there.”

“Yeah… yeah okay,” Magnus nodded absently.  “But what’s wrong with Taako?”

“He…” Lucretia glanced at Taako’s body, still curled up on the floor of the wagon shuddering.  “He should be okay in a little bit.  I think the gas was a lot worse for him.  He should recover in a couple hours.  But at least… At least he’s got you to take care of him, right?”

“Yeah,” Magnus nodded again, but this time he smiled, and Lucretia could feel her heart breaking.  “Yeah I’ll take care of him.”

Magnus busied himself with checking the wagon, and Lucretia tried not to look at him as his brain tried to fill in the blanks.  Finally, when he was convinced, he turned to her one more time with a smile.

“Thanks for saving us miss,” he beamed, taking the reins.  “Taako and I really owe you.”

“Oh don’t thank me,” she said with a gasp.  “I was just… Doing what I thought was right.”

“I’m grateful,” he said, “Come see us in Neverwinter some time?”

As she watched them ride away, she saw Taako sit up in the back of the wagon and come to sit beside Magnus.  The passed over the horizon just as Taako draped his arm over Magnus’ shoulder.

They had each other.

Maybe they would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to build off this you have my blessing!


End file.
